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New lawsuit targets NCAA and every Division I school

The legal attacks on the NCAA and its limits on what athletes can receive while playing college sports have been spread across a much wider front with the filing of a lawsuit that names the NCAA and every

New lawsuit targets NCAA and every Division I school

A judge on Thursday declined to dismiss two lawsuits against the NCAA and a group of major conferences.(Photo: Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports)

The legal attacks on the NCAA and its limits on what athletes can receive while playing college sports have been spread across a much wider front with the filing of a lawsuit that names the NCAA and every Division I school as defendants.

The suit — filed this week in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, where the NCAA is headquartered — alleges that the NCAA and the schools are violating the wage-and-hour provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The allegations are framed by the schools' employment of students in work-study positions that pay hourly wages.

"Student athletes meet the criteria for recognition as temporary employees of NCAA Division I Member Schools under the FLSA as much as, if not more than, work study participants, and, thus, NCAA Division I Member Schools are required by law to pay student athletes at least the federal minimum-wage of $7.25 an hour," the complaint alleges.

The complaint says that students in work-study, part-time jobs perform non-academic functions for no academic credit, so they meet the criteria for recognition as temporary employees of the schools under the FLSA. As result, the schools "must, and do, pay them" at least the minimum wage, the complaint says.

"Student athletes engage in non-academic performance for no academic credit in athletic competition," the complaint alleges. "By comparison to student participants in work study part-time employment programs, student athletes perform longer, more rigorous hours … are subject to stricter, more exacting supervision by full-time staff … and confer many, if not more, tangible and intangible benefits on" Division I schools.

The complaint, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data, adds that this situation "produces the following perverse result: work study participants who sell programs or usher at athletic events are paid, on average, $9.03 an hour, but student athletes whose performance creates such work study jobs in the athletic department are paid nothing."

The suit's named plaintiff is Samantha Sackos, a University of Houston women's soccer player from 2010-11 through 2013-14. It was filed by a Philadelphia-based attorney, Paul L. McDonald.

The suit says it is being brought on behalf of all NCAA Division athletes in men's and women's sports and seeks what it terms "unpaid wages" -- essentially back-pay for athletes beginning at least two years ago -- as well as an injunction against the NCAA and the schools.

The suit says that McDonald approached the NCAA about this matter prior to filing the lawsuit and "the NCAA asserted that NCAA regulated sports are extracurricular activities in the same manner as, 'dramatics, student publications, glee clubs, bands, choirs, debating teams, radio stations, intramural and interscholastic athletics ... conducted primarily for the benefit of the participants as part of educational opportunities' and, thus exempt from FLSA requirements."

The NCAA's chief legal officer Donald Remy, in a statement, said of the lawsuit: "We are currently evaluating the complaint, but disagree that student-athletes are participating in athletics as employees. Student-athletes have a passion for their sport and a commitment to their teammates that can't be equated to punching a time clock."

McDonald said in a statement the suit "does not require significant changes to attain wage equity for student athletes. During playing and practice seasons, colleges could fold student athletes into existing payroll systems for work study — even utilizing NCAA required recording of countable athletically-related activities as weekly time sheets."

There a number of lawsuits related to compensation of college athletes pending in federal courts, but those have named the NCAA or conferences as defendants — not the individual schools. Northwestern University is named in a case pending before the National Labor Relations board regarding its football team's right to unionize.

McDonald said in his statement this case does not propose giving athletes regular employee status and collective-bargaining rights.